Monthly Archives: September 2014

If you’re a bike rider living in a compact apartment then you’re fully aware of the horrors of parking your precious bike. Stashing it in your small apartment will only make your apartment more congested, and putting it outside the building of course makes it more prone to theft.

It’s like an addiction, isn’t it? All this gazing at our mobile phone screens, looking for emails, texts, Facebook posts, anything which we’re scared of missing. Even when we’re somewhere important, like a birthday party, a concert, even a job interview, we’re desperate to pull out the phone and check just one more time, quickly. Honest, it won’t take a second.

Isn’t it nice to wake up on Sunday morning? Sunlight flittering through your shades. Maybe a little bird song playing outside the window, and the little elves cleaning your ball gown. A nice gentle welcome to the day ahead. Unfortunately, most of us wake up to beeping, buzzing, or a song picked for its abrasive qualities. The Philips HF3500/60 Wake-Up Light is a better way to greet the day.

Bobble heads are everywhere. On desks, in cars, windows, just everywhere! Cartoon characters, actors, and mini versions of yourself. Well that last one may not be as plentiful, since you’re clearly in a class of your own. But now, thanks to Mixee Labs and their Mixee Bobbler service, you’ve got the chance to make your very own real life WeeMe avatar. Ooohh…we hear you say.

Car giant Renault is no stranger to innovation, and today the company has announced a new prototype vehicle, the EOLAB, as part of its ‘ultra low fuel consumption‘ initiative, which is part of a plan to introduce affordable low consumption motoring to the mass market within the next 10 years. The car, which is based on a standard supermini format, features over 100 innovations, which focus on reducing weight, dramatically improving aerodynamics and improving the hybrid engine technology significantly.

The original Sphero robot ball got some great press when it was released a few years ago, and now the company has just launched a new successor, the Sphero Ollie. The format has changed in the intervening period, no longer a round ball, now the new Ollie is more like a rectangular roller shape, with some interesting twists.

One of the best things that smartphones have brought to the table is the ability to access useful information in an instant. Airfares, traffic conditions, that sort of stuff. Your MD’s Symptom Checker goes one step further and lets you use your phone to find out what’s wrong with you healthwise, and it’s beautifully easy to use.

Oh wow, apparently Apple has confirmed that it’s new iPhone 6 NFC implementation is locked to work with only one app, the Apple Pay service. Oh my oh my. This is rather like locking Bluetooth to work only with an iPod, and we can’t help feeling that Steve Jobs must be spinning at several thousand RPM right now, as this incredibly dumb move goes down.

Do you find yourself rushing from place to place? Out of bed, to work, home to relax, out with friends. Rush, rush, rush. But it’s ok, you have all the time in the world right? Or do you? With the Death Watch on, you can keep track of how much time you have left and maybe remind yourself to stop and smell the roses. Because time is always running out.

Oh it may not look like much right now, but pretty soon you’re going to start seeing properly clothed versions of these…ahem…puppies scooting around town behind their owners, no question. It’s just a matter of getting the batteries right we reckon. MIT Cheetah Bot is a research project at MIT to develop an autonomous robot ‘creature’, rather like the original and rather scary LS3 ‘dog’ from Boston Dynamics.

Cooking is science. Mixing, measuring, creating. The whole thing from start to finish a delicious science. So why not display your ingredients as the wonderful bits of chemistry that they are? The Chemistry Set Spice Rack lets your inner mad scientist shine in your laboratory, I mean kitchen.

Every so often in tech a new product arrives on the market which doesn’t quite make sense, but is still rather cool. These products often don’t find a mass market, but what they do is point the way to a future iteration which will eventually indeed make waves, and possibly even create a new market segment. The new Panasonic Lumix DMC-CM1 Smart Camera [original] is just such a product.

Here’s a cool little combo product that we’ve just come across, a laptop/tablet backpack which also comes with an integrated turn indicator panel, which looks like it’s the perfect solution for cycling home at night in the dark after college, work or that date with a Time Lord.

Those of us living in a large city can now look away and go back to the crossword or whatever, because this is a public service message for anyone who’s at risk from small scuttling creatures which wish them harm. This Sunsbell UV Scorpion Hunter is, as the name suggests, a tool for locating the little critters quickly and easily. Which is the way we would definitely like to do it, given a choice.

Some things instantly look like fun for all, and this Cocoon Hanging Tent is one. C’mon, who wouldn’t want to climb into this puppy and swing back and forth while reading P.G. Wodehouse (who?), sipping iced chamomile tea and listening to some cool summer sounds . But maybe we’re being silly?